I love July

I have to apologize to July for certain disparaging remarks that I have made about it in the past. Said remarks have typically been made as I have remembered the ridiculous heat of past July days--anyone remember the 4th a few years ago when the 109 degree heat in Delta broke records? Enough said. However, I actually really enjoy July for several reasons. First is the Fourth of July. Who doesn't love this holiday? (Besides anarchists and conspiracy theorists, I mean.) I went ahead and didn't take any pictures, but rest assured that we had a great Fourth. We went to Seven Peaks (a water park in Utah County) for most of the day, and you can tell that we're getting old because we stopped to reapply our sunscreen every few hours. We had a ton of fun hanging out with Lynn & Jeff and the Bartold family, going on rides and eating way too much. The wave pool, which was my favorite when we went growing up, was totally lame because the pumps were broken--really, on the Fourth of July? Figure it out! But they had a few rides that were new since the last time I had been there 10 years ago. Good times! Be glad, actually, that I didn't take any pictures--I'm doing everyone a favor. Then we went down to Fool Creek to hang out with Jon & Rita (my parents), my brother Dylan, and Isaac and Ella (nephew and niece). Isaac is really funny when it comes to fireworks, so that was a good time. We went down to Delta and made it just in time to catch the fireworks, which are actually quite good for a small town. Then we rounded out our Fourth with a Slurpee from the one and only 7-Eleven. We couldn't hear the patriotic music during the fireworks show because we were too far away, but we were able to listen to our own lineup of patriotic tunes on the way from Orem to Fool Creek. We started it off with "God Bless the USA," which always gets me a little choked up, and then listened to the songs for the various armed forces, including my favorite, The Marines Hymn ("From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles in the air, on land, and sea..."). And obviously we had to listen to "My Country! Tis of Thee," "America the Beautiful," and "God Bless America." I love our national anthem, and I told Blair how I wish that more people would sing the fourth verse, which says "O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved it a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.' And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." It definitely makes me proud to be an American and grateful to the men (and women) who stand between our homes and war's desolation, and I love how it acknowledges God's hand in the creation and sustaining of our country. We are definitely so blessed to have the freedoms and luxuries we have, especially compared to other parts of the world.

Another thing I love about July is the Ute Stampede, the best rodeo in Utah! I think that we have gone to this just about every year since I was 12. I tried to get some good pictures, but apparently my camera skills are not quite good enough yet to get action shots of bulls and whatnot. But I did manage to get a few. This is the arena from where we were sitting. A pretty good view of the chutes, which are at the right of the picture. It was a great night for a rodeo!
These are the buffaloes that were part of an act between events. They're pretty cool looking animals, but I don't know if they need to have dreadlocks...
Here's one of the shots that I got of the bulls. The blue blur behind the bull is the rider getting bucked off. It was a good night for bull riders--there were a lot that stayed on. I really enjoy a good bull ride, so I was getting into it, giving the fist pump and yelling and cheering a lot. I know, I'm kind of a dork, but I was having a good time.
Here's another bull rider. They had some pretty good bulls that were doing a lot of spinning and sideways jumping stuff.
I tried to get a picture of the fireworks that they do before the bull riding, but my timing wasn't good enough. I love it, though. They get the crowd all fired up for the bull riding (as if everyone isn't fired up enough about it already--I mean, isn't that what everyone comes to see?) by turning off all the lights in the arena and shooting off fireworks all around the edges. And it definitely works to get you fired up for the bulls!

I tried to get some good pictures of me and my sisters, but apparently I was a little shaky because most of the pictures are blurry...
So we had 2 extra tickets and our good friends Cole Riding and Chance Rich came and sat with us, but Chance had already ditched us by this point. As you can see, Cole was very pleased to be hanging out with us.
The Sisters Finlinson having a good time at the rodeo.
Seriously, having a good time!
I didn't get a picture of my absolute favorite part about the Ute Stampede because we got there a few minutes late, so you'll just have to visualize it. Instead of just having someone sing the national anthem, they have a guy who jumps out of a plane with the biggest American flag you have ever seen and slowly comes down into the arena as "God Bless the USA" is playing. When he lands, they have a bunch of armed forces guys who are in uniform run out and pick up the edges of the flag so that it's not on the ground for very long, and then they hold it while someone sings the national anthem. It is so fantastic, and it prolongs the patriotism of the Fourth just a little bit longer. I would recommend going to the Ute Stampede for this feature alone, even if you're not a big rodeo-goer.

Another thing I love about July is getting together with the fam. Nicole is in town this week, so we had to have a get together at my house on Sunday to hang out. Everyone was there except Andre & Brooke and their kids, so it was a pretty full house. Then this weekend, we have the Finlinson reunion, which is always a highlight of the summer. We have some pretty great extended family members, so it'll be fun to hang out with my dad's side this weekend and then my mom's side next weekend. We're going to have a fun-filled weekend, including hiking the Peak on Saturday morning, hanging out with the relatives most of the day on Saturday, and then having an Oak City dance to round out the weekend. I'll have to make sure to take the camera and get some good pics. Then next week is also Fiesta Days in Spanish Fork, which will include another rodeo and my very first 10k! Pioneer Day will be the best ever this year because it is a paid holiday for me, besides being a good opportunity to remember our ancestors. So July--pretty great month for us and full of fun activities.